Issue For many years, sugar mills have burned bagasse, the fibrous byproduct of the processing of sugarcane, using special boilers that produce the steam needed to help break down the sugar cane. As the cost of powering this equipment by burning fossil fuels has steadily risen, the use of biofuel cogeneration as a source of power ...

Flammable Hazards The difference between a gas and a vapor is that vapors arise from liquids, whereas gases are normally in a gaseous state. Flammable vapors present additional sampling concerns (for example, we must prevent vapors from returning to the liquid state during sampling). The 3 Elements of Fire Three elements must be present for a flammable ...

The threat of wildfire is a major concern to more and more homeowners as construction of homes moves into the Wildland Urban Interface. Periods of drought are frightening times for residents of suburban and rural areas across the country, including the Northwest, the West, and the Rocky Mountain states as well as the Southeast. For those of us who live near natural areas of brush or forest, the ...

This paper addresses the safety aspects of local shopping malls. There are concerns about occupant density, high fire load and inadequate fire safety provisions such as passive building design, active fire protection and fire safety management. Therefore, a preliminary study on such a shopping mall was carried out in order to understand the potential fire hazard. A site survey was carried out to ...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) has been used in fire extinguishers and fire suppression systems for more than a hundred years. In high concentrations it dilutes oxygen, thus removing one of the three elements of the combustion triangle (the other two being heat and fuel). It is also cheap, widely available, odourless, colourless, electrically non-conductive, chemically inert and it leaves no residue. It is ...

California's hope for an uneventful 2007 fire season exploded on October 19th, as Southern California was ignited by massive wildfires. Fanned by Santa Ana winds in excess of 100 mph, thousands of acres of private and public property were soon destroyed. By October 21 damage was so severe and widespread that Governor Schwarzenegger proclaimed a State of Emergency in seven Southern California ...

WHEN IT comes to the importance of clearing dead and diseased trees as a fire prevention step, Wayne Williams of San Diego County, California is living (and breathing) it. “I was walking around the fire zone, and where residents had cleared spaces around their homes, the house was usually saved,” says Williams. “Houses without a firebreak, or on a ridge (where fire can leap out of a canyon), were ...

Contrary to popular belief, an oil well can be an explosive hazard even when it is not in operation (pumping steady). An EnergyWire review of federal labor statistics cited that the oil and gas sector experiences the most deaths from fires and explosions, compared to other private industries. Risks of Explosive Elements around Oil Wells A recent explosion in ...

What’s at Stake? Electrical shock is a leading cause of workplace fatalities and almost every day approximately one electrocution, 10 disabling injuries and 100 electrical shocks are reported. What’s the Danger? There are four main electricity-related injuries: Electrocution; Shock, which is caused when ...

It’s well known that wood dust is highly combustible, but the practice of removing it with vacuum trucks can also be dangerous, because of the potential buildup of static electricity. WorkSafeBC has issued a bulletin stating that “static electricity discharges can ignite wood dust and therefore must be eliminated or adequately controlled during vacuuming.” When wood dust or ...

Many acceptable categorical storage schemes have been proposed and used by laboratories in academic, industrial, government and medical institutions. The common features uniting all these plans is the separation of incompatible materials. The differences in these various storage schemes arises in the number of groups that should be established for segregation purposes. The ten most commonly cited ...

Today most large organizations that must deal with hazardous materials follow a time-honored process for identifying critical compliance needs and spend the money necessary to make it work. However, committing this level of resources can be tough for smaller companies. The challenge is to effectively manage their entire chemical inventory to stay in compliance and avoid the dangers, fines and ...

Electrical equipment in hazardous (classified) locations present a serious threat for workers due to the existence of explosive dust and vapors. Examples of such facilities range from grain mills and gasoline stations to aircraft hangars and chemical manufacturing plants. To prevent devastating explosions that may occur from the ignition of combustible particles in the atmosphere, the National ...

In the wake of recent tragic and highly publicized dust explosions, companies are asking, 'Could that happen here?' and 'What can I do to prevent such an incident at my facility?' One approach is to manage dust explosion hazards as though they were subject to OSHA’s Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements (29 CFR 1910.119), even though dust hazards often are not covered under this ...

Many on-the-job hazards are obvious... leaking machinery... dangerous chemicals... slippery floors. However, other hazards aren't so obvious. There may be no visible signals that they are present at all. That's why Asbestos is often known as 'the silent killer.' While you often can't see, taste or smell it..., prolonged periods of exposure to Asbestos can cause lung disease, cancer... even death. ...

What’s at Stake If you and your buddies were facing a dangerous, deceptive enemy, you’d want to find out all you could about it and share any information you come up with. The fact is you do have such a treacherous enemy - the workplace hazard. What’s the Danger An unnoticed hazard can take your life in an instant, or cause you a lifetime of ...

The benefits of engineering of functional systems at the nanometre-scale as one of the key technologies of the 21st century almost always imply grave risks. The increasing speed of nanotechnology commercialisation and development has apparently outstripped the study of health and safety data. A potential hazard of nanopowders that appears to have received little attention so far is their ...

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